Tropa de héroes

Greetings again from the darkness. During the movie, Afghanistan is referred to as "the graveyard of many empires". Traditionally, January is the graveyard of most new movie releases, so it's a pleasant surprise when we see an entertaining, well-made and historically interesting film, and it's still mid-January! Doug Stanton's book "Horse Soldiers" is the source material for director Nicolai Fuglsig's first feature film, and it's anything but a disappointment.

The film opens on September 11, 2001 and subjects us, yet again, to those horrific images seared into the minds of anyone alive on that day. What most of us didn't know, was that about a month later, a team of U.S. Army Special Forces (the Green Berets) were being dropped into the rough and mostly unfriendly terrain of Afghanistan. This ridiculously courageous team of 12 men had one mission: secure Mazar-i-Sharif to prevent a takeover by the Taliban.

An early scene tells us this won't be the usual blind patriotism we often see on screen. One of the soldiers, Hal Spencer (Michael Shannon), is told (with a bit of anger) by his wife, "I'll love you when you get back." This contrasts to the usual loyal and stiff-upper-lip military wife we see in most war movies. Another wife scrubs the oven rather than snuggle with her man, while yet another coerces a taboo pledge to come home to her.

Chris Hemsworth (THOR) plays Captain Mitch Nelson, the intelligent but not-yet-battle-tested leader of a special ops team. The plan is for Nelson and his team to connect with General Dostum, an Afghan War Lord in charge of the Northern Alliance, and fight together to gain control of Mazar. After arriving at a local outpost nicknamed "The Alamo" (34 miles from town), the team gets their first surprise ... they must split up and cover the ground on horseback. Filmed in New Mexico, the journey is miserable and filled with danger - an ambush could occur at any moment, or perhaps they are being set-up by those they have been ordered to trust.

Horseback riding, caves, the weather, and the elements of the terrain are all challenges, but none of it compares to facing the Taliban forces which number in the thousands, and feature tanks, rocket launchers and an endless supply of weaponry. Director Fuglsig utilizes a "Days in Country" counter so that we can get some semblance of time and ongoing misery being fought through by the Americans. But no day is normal when the soldiers are on horseback while being attacked by tanks. The odds seem insurmountable.

One of the more fascinating aspects of the story and welcome approaches of the film is back-and-forth between Captain Nelson and General Dostum. Initially, Dostum shows little respect by telling the young officer that he lacks "the eyes of a killer" and isn't yet a warrior, and he spends a great deal of time lecturing and philosophizing on Nelson's behalf. Of course, the lessons may be frustrating in the moment, but aren't lost on Nelson as there is a huge payoff at the peak of the key battle.

The battle scenes come in all sizes - small skirmishes and massive, large scale assaults. Each is intense and dramatic and well-staged, though there are some moments where we shake our head in disbelief. At least we do until we remember that this is a true story, and despite that, it is truly unbelievable. The supporting cast includes Michael Pena and his snappy punchlines, Trevante Rhodes (MOONLIGHT), William Fichtner with a shaved head, Elsa Pataky - Hemsworth's real life wife as his screen wife, Taylor Sheridan, Geoff Stults and Jack Kesy. Rob Riggle plays Colonel Max Bowers, who was Riggle's commanding officer when he served in the Marines. The previously mentioned Michael Shannon is a bit underutilized, but the film's best moments are those with Hemsworth and Navid Negahban (as General Dostum). You likely recognize Negahban as Abu Nazir from "Homeland". It's their exchanges that show how the line between allies and enemies is not always crystal clear - even if they are fighting for the same thing.

Writers Peter Craig (THE TOWN) and Ted Tally (Oscar winner for THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) do a nice job of character development, and the camaraderie of the 12 men of ODA 595 seems authentic - despite some schmaltzy moments over their 23 days of Task Force Dagger. Early on, we are informed that the most important thing to take to war is "a reason why", and then towards the end, Dostum explains that the United States is in a no-win situation: we are cowards if we go, and enemies if we stay. It's chilling commentary on a war that has dragged on much too long ... despite the heroic efforts of the 12 horse soldiers.

I don't understand all the negative and one liner reviews- most be trolls. The absurdity of mounted cavalry attack against a T-72 speaks volume of OEF. A few errors such as glowing NVGs and a tad weak Mk82 bombs.

The basis of the movie is great. Assuming there was a "little" artistic freedom exercised to make it better for Hollywood, some of it was a little over the top. Classic "video game" action scenes where the hero is being shot at by hundreds of enemies and he never gets hit, and the infinite ammo syndrome (drives me crazy). I think I only saw him reload once throughout the move.

I'd watch it again sometime when my wife isn't going to fall asleep.

The 12 Special Forces (SF) men who went into Afghanistan were accompanied by USAF Combat Controllers (CCT) who were the actual men calling in the decisive air strikes. For some reason they were excluded, though they were right there, on the horses, riding with their Army brethren. To leave them out turns this story into more of a fictional portrayal of what really occurred. The courage that the SF troops showed was indeed worthy of telling in this format, but it is remiss in not telling the whole story and recognizing all the men on the ground. I enjoyed the movie but couldn't get past the parts where the SF troops were calling in air strikes. I give it 6 stars for the action though.

On a side note, the CCT personnel accompanying the A teams are highly trained in many facets of special operations, and complete a 2 year training program, which includes required graduation from Military Freefall and Combat Diver, among numerous other courses. These men also earned the right to be recognized for their contributions in breaking the back of the Taliban.

Now I'm not doubting these guys existed or downplaying their killing abilities but that is really all you get.

The basic plot of US special forces/green berets going to Afghanistan immediately after 9/11 and joining up with an Afghan commander (General Dostrum) to defeat the Taliban is simple enough and that bare outline is true enough it would seem.

Left to it's own devices this could have been a worthy testament to the skills of the Americans and a rare chance to focus on the Afghans fighting alongside them and doing the dying, instead we have Hemsworth being, well, Hemsworth, spouting some pretty poor duty and honour dialogue which in some scenes is just cringeworthy. We have no real idea what this guy is about or why his men follow him, similarly with Shannon's grizzled veteran who is obviously placed there as some kind of counter point but his considerable acting abilities are just wasted. As for everyone else, they are just walking through a series of constructs aiming for the pay cheque at the end. The real failure is to recognise who the hell General Dostrum was and his place in modern Afghan history, instead we have a caricature that belongs to a different era of film making.

In terms of the battles it starts well and does at least show that the real battle winner was the ability of these guys to call in massive air support. However in the final battle where we have Hemsworth leading a cavalry charge of Dostrum's men against truck borne rocket launchers "before they reload" is ludicrous these things fire into the sky, they can't be levelled so charge whenever you like. In fact this whole overly long final act is what spoilt the film for me, it is riddled with cliches and inaccuracies; we have Russian BMP's referred to as tanks when they're not, we have actual tanks referred to as T72's when there were no T72's in Afghanistan, we have Hemsworth firing an M4A1 single handed from horse back and hitting everytime including at a guy firing a tank turret machine gun straight at him, the scenes of Hemsworth and co' up close on charging horses are clearly on rigs not horses, really embarrassing and in the aftermath of the battle the amount of destroyed armour littering the field is just way over the top and to some extent devalues the victory.

If you want a bit of flag waving and bonding and stuff blowing up then go for it but there are better films set in this conflict out there.